November 7, 2026
ALBERT PARK, 41 Reed Street. 736
ARMADALE, 30 Glassford Street. 592
BEAUMARIS, 23 Haldane Street. 712
BRIGHTON, 16 Lorac Avenue. 679
CAMBERWELL, 25 Alma Road. 818
CAMBERWELL, 7 Avenue Road. 644
CAMBERWELL, 18 Acheron Avenue. 710
CANTERBURY, 3 Flinders Avenue. 720
GLEN IRIS, 23 Bourne Road. 649
GLEN IRIS, 13 Valley Parade. 619
GLEN IRIS, 7 Bourne Road. 582
GLEN IRIS, 2 Courang Road. 728
HAWTHORN, 46 Urquhart Street. 625
HAWTHORN, 28 Glen Road. 649
HAWTHORN, 36 Chrystobel Crescent. 680
HAWTHORN EAST, 17 Station Street. 679
HAWTHORN EAST, 7A Homebush Crescent. 600
IVANHOE, 13 Abbotsford Grove. 600
KEW, 14a Madden Grove. 706
KEW, 3 Hume Street. 667
KEW, 8 Barrington Avenue. 750
KEW, 27 Florence Avenue. 760
KEW, 16 Fernhurst Grove. 640
MALVEN, 21 Lysterville Avenue. 626
MALVERN EAST, 20 Davies Street. 690
MALVERN EAST, 43 Rothesay Avenue. 712
MALVERN EAST, 106 Emo Road. 628
MALVERN EAST, 13 Kerferd Street. 764
MIDDLE PARK, 191 Richardson Street. 690
MIDDLE PARK, 39 Nimmo Street. 688
PRAHRAN, 33 Chatsworth Road. 748
SANDRINGHAM, 17 Jennings Street. 672
SOUTH YARRA, 41 Fawkner Street. 776
SURREY HILLS, 14 Norris Street. 656
SURREY HILLS, 98 Croydon Road. 722
SURREY HILLS, 82 Croydon Road. 633
TOORAK, 4 Montalto Avenue. 680
EOI Auction Brilliant Agent Innovation
A $10.1 million reserve. A Wednesday auction. And a week with no cooling off. One Toorak sale may have just rewritten the rules for Melbourne’s top end, and we bought a half-acre in Kew the hard way. Here’s what every top-end buyer and seller needs to know now.
The $7m+ Market Is Kicking a Little
The $7m+ Market Is Kicking a Little
Welcome back. The Cup has run. How did you go?
We still believe the new reserve laws are an excellent move for most Victorians. Buyers and sellers alike.
Either side of the Cup, we were involved in six sales around $2 million. All sold close to their reserve. The one exception wasn’t an auction or an EOI, and it sold well below.
Congratulations to David Blythe and Stewart Oldmeadow of Miles on yesterday’s Ivanhoe sale.
It’s hard to call something underquoting when the seller will actually sell at that figure. A so-called low reserve isn’t a trick. It’s the market working.
And it’s putting trust back into the figures. Long live declared reserves for the under-$3m market!
The market has had a small lift. Prices may still be easing, but we may be near the bottom. Christmas will bring the usual quiet. Off market, sadly, is still quiet too.
At the top end, we bid on four properties between $7 million and $10 million. One is still in off-market negotiations. One, in Hillcrest Avenue, Kew, is under offer with Walter Dodich of Abercromby’s, and we were beaten. The other two, one bought and one missed, are below.
And AML checks? They’re necessary like airport security, but it’s the same paperwork again and again. Collect it once. Verify it once. Please help with oil, not just sand in Australia’s business engines.
A Little More Light
EOI/Auction Advertised Together: A Stroke of Genius
Back to the four $7 million to $10 million transactions we’ve been part of this fortnight. Two are public and finished. Both are lessons in why you have good agents, and in one brilliant innovation.
We’d love to say it was ours. It wasn’t. But at the top end, it levels the playing field the new legislation unintentionally tilted against sellers.
7 Montalto, Toorak, was bought by David Morrell on behalf of his client. David is a buyer’s agent extraordinaire and, for 25 years, our toughest competition. Credit where credit is due. Our client didn’t get there.
Richard MacKinnon of Marshall White advertised Montalto as both an EOI and an auction, with a courageous $10.1 million reserve. The EOI closed on a Monday. The auction was set for the Wednesday if it hadn’t sold.
Think about what that does.
Because there’s an auction on the Wednesday, there’s no cooling off either side of it. From the Friday before to the week after. Well over a week of serious negotiation, with no cooling off.
And the seller can set a strong reserve, yet still negotiate below it when a standout buyer emerges. Montalto sold at around $9.8 million. Slightly below reserve, but the reserve was very strong to begin with.
And no, David didn’t overpay. This was an exceptional A-grade property. That’s why we went after it too. Our public rating is linked below.
Goodbye, Saturday auctions. Hello, Wednesday.
Why does it matter? For most Victorians, declared reserves are a very good thing. But at the top end, there’s usually only one buyer. What price do you declare when you both know it? We feared it would wipe out top-end auctions. This system brings the balance back. We’ll be adding it to our off-market multi-agent process. Well done, Richard.
Kew: Two Properties, One Purchase
The second was ours. The combined purchase of Mount Street and Daniell Place, Kew, next to Carey, sold by Stuart Evans of Marshall White.
Just over half an acre, originally quoted at a combined $9.2 million. Too high. The seller wanted to sell, Stuart was responsive, and the combined reserve moved quickly into the sevens. That was smart.
The hard part? Our clients wanted both properties, and each purchase depended on the other. So we had to agree a price for the Mount Street block in advance. Otherwise you’re chasing one and at the mercy of the seller on the second.
We started dealing before the EOI closed. It didn’t land then, but with an auction waiting, the competition stayed honest. There was competition at $5 million and above. We offered over $3,000 a square metre, and it still went to auction. Unlike Montalto, cooling off applied here. But the process was transparent and on the market.
Stuart handled it very well. And we secured both for about $7.7 million in total. Only $15,000 above the other proven combined bidders.
Market proven. Market price paid.
Two homes. One Buy. Low Risk. $15k to underbidders.
The Ultimate New Playbook for the Top End
So where does that leave us? The top end now has a genuinely good way to test the market.
STUPID: A public EOI with one agent. That’s the dark ages. It’s the easiest way for the poorer, lazier, less imaginative agent to do business. And some buyers read it as code that the price is too high.
SMART: Start off market, multi-agent. Then go on market with the double-advertised, midweek EOI and auction.
Off market isn’t flying this month. But when it’s alive and well, we love it. offmarket.com.au.
STUPID: Off market with one agent. After a week or two, they’ve been through their database. What’s your next strategy? You don’t have one. The exceptions are closed, insular markets and the lower end. And if agents won’t work together, go one at a time.
STUPID: Testing the market with a dumb price. Off-market multi-agent won’t sell an overpriced home. Even off market, the best buyers come at first blush. Ask too much and you wipe them out.
SMART: Use it to find out what the market genuinely thinks your property is worth. So you don’t undersell, or fail to sell. And if you do go public, you go informed.
SMART: Interview agents by action, not marketing promise. Ask them to bring their buyers. A letterbox drop. A few calls. If they won’t work before they’re appointed, what will they bring to a campaign?
STUPID: An expensive ad and a few glossy brochures at the front door. We could do that and still get our bets on at the races. That’s not a strategy, that’s a habit. And this market isn’t rewarding it.
STUPID: Hiring a seller advocate just to manage agents. Great selling agents don’t need managing. What you need is a process AND more buyers. From the other side of the table, too many seller advocates lower prices rather than lift them.
Off-Market Multi-Agent to find the market and agent
Auction–EOI Close on a Wednesday to find price
If off-market multi-agent doesn’t get there, the next step is the combined auction and EOI. The MAC.
A week and a half of serious negotiation, with no cooling off. Buyers know the property can really sell, the seller is motivated and the price is strong. So they negotiate near it, rather than wait for cooling off to save them.
The advantage to buyers? None. The old standalone EOI was a walk in the park for smart buyers. Not anymore.
SMART: It must be run by credible agents with a credible process. “Submit your offer and we’ll come back to you” isn’t a process. It’s a mistake, and it means lower prices.
STUPID: Going back to the buyers who made no offer, or a low one. For twenty years we’ve asked why agents do it. If a buyer is strong enough to hit the reserve, or come near it, why reward the ones trying to buy cheaply? When we sell, we don’t.
SMART: Run the negotiation period. If it doesn’t land, go to auction. And even at the reserve, no politician is ordering you to sell. We think you should. But you don’t have to.
We suspect a new language will emerge: the published reserve, and an “on the market” price. At Montalto, the reserve could be $10.1 million, where it’s sold now, with an on-the-market price of $9 million, where it sells if no better bid comes.
It’s early days. But the balance has come well back towards the seller. Which means buyers need to lift their game, and they’ll need buyer’s agents.
SMART: Both Montalto and Kew were bought with buyer’s agents. A good one can save and make you millions. But you still need to secure the property.
As our favourite mountaineering saying goes, it’s not a successful summit if you don’t get back down alive. And it’s not a successful negotiation if you wanted to buy, but didn’t.
So congratulations to our competition, Morrell and Koren, on one. And to James Buyer Advocates on the other.
4 extra buyer businesses brought to the deal
Innovate with James
So many innovations now help you buy and sell better: offmarket.com.au, multi-agent, the MAC, Request a Rating, and buyer and buy–sell advocacy.
Both deals above came off ratings. Ratings help buyers, and they help sellers too.
Here’s to a strong run into Christmas. Good things are happening.
If we can help, give us a call.
I’m Mal James (0408 107 988).
This is Market News, and we are James Buyer Advocates.
Bang. Great fortnight. Well done.
Architectural Kathy (0414 296 630)
Off Market Simone (0400 304 111)
BOUGHT
BOUGHT
offmarket.com.au
JAMES HOME RATINGS
VALUE & GROWTH PERSPECTIVES
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JAMES SELLER ADVOCATES
Our reserve is always within the quote
LAST WEEK
JAMES HOME RATINGS
We visit every home, plus we value them, plus we cover many many more that are off market for our clients
AUGUST 29 2026
STONNINGTON
BOROONDARA
AROUND THE BAY
Inner City & Inner North
JAMES BUYER ADVOCATES
Client’s we are looking to buy for
| Price | Property | Position |
| Low to mid $4ms | Family home, good land, room for pool and basketball, open to doing work | Surrey Hills, Camberwell, Canterbury, Kew and surrounds |
| $1.8m | Apartment | East Melbourne |
| $5m to $7m | Period home to renovate or move-in ready | Armadale |
| Circa $2m | Townhouse | Richmond through to Carnegie |
| Up to $4m, or $1.5m house for daughter | Family home | Prahran |
| Up to $2m | Small home with car parking | Prahran |
| Circa $2.5m | Family home with more living space than they currently have | Port Phillip, Middle Park / Albert Park |
| $1.4m to $1.5m | Single-fronted home | Richmond |
| $2.5m to $2.8m | 4-bedroom family home, move-in ready | Brighton, Hampton |
| $6m | Move-in ready | Tara Estate, Scotch Hill, Grace Park |
